As is known from the state-of-the-art, connecting terminals, in particular a plug-type connector for electrical contacting and for attachment to a printed circuit board equipped with a base strip or electrical equipment or the like, for at least one electrical conductor, are available in many designs, for example in single-pole or multi-pole designs, with a housing made of insulating material either in block or modular design, where the housing made of insulating material exhibits at least one insertion opening for inserting an electrical conductor, at least one insertion opening for inserting a contact pin into the socket contact and an opening for the actuating means in the form of a push element for opening the terminal point by applying an actuating tool, as well as a receiving space for receiving a spring force element and a contact insert that fulfills several functions.
Such connecting terminals, in particular plug-type connectors, are sufficiently known from the state-of-the-art and may be obtained, for example, from the product catalog “Leiterplattenanschluss COMBICON 2005” [“Printed circuit board connector COMBICON 2005” TNR 5169412/31.12.2004-00 of the company Phoenix Contact GmbH & Co KG,] with such plug-type connectors in spring force connection technology being available for almost every type of connection in building services engineering and telecommunications. All connecting terminals, in particular plug-type connectors of this kind, are characterized by an excellent clamping capacity, space-saving dimensions and versatility in the field of connection technology. One design series of these plug-type connectors is the spring force connecting terminal in leg spring design.
Plug-type connectors of this kind are mass-produced articles. This supports the demand for, on the one hand, the ability to establish connections fast and without problems, and, on the other hand, for the individual components of the plug-type connectors to be manufactured cost-effectively, taking into account the directives and standards for electrically conducting components, to be easily machine-customizable, and, taking into account the developmental requirements for dimensioning, to reduce the installation size of the insulating housing of the connecting terminals, in order to adapt the plug-type connectors to the ever shrinking installation size on printed circuit boards.
Thus, there is a demand for the components to be manufactured and processed efficiently and to meet the higher quality demands in order to satisfy the various areas of applications. Thus, each component shall be optimized in its function and a closed system shall be created, where the contacting spring force element is connected with the electrically conducting connection surface, the bus bar, such that a contact is established independent of an insulating housing, and, therefore, a shifting movement of the spring force element due to softening and deformation of the insulating housing at high temperatures is excluded.
Known from DE 28 02 686, which is viewed as the closest state-of-the-art, is a spring terminal for the plug-type connection of several electrical conductors to a bus bar using a compression spring that presses the conductors onto the bus bar, whereby the compression springs exhibit blades of the base web of an approximately U-shaped spring element with said blades being angled and at a distance to each other and where the legs of said spring element can contact the bus bar and an insulating housing covering said bus bar. Although this known arrangement is provided for several terminal points, it is fundamentally not suitable as a connecting terminal for printed circuit board technology. The disadvantage is that a quick disconnect of the individual terminal connections is not provided by the characteristic lever opener.